VA Health Care:
VA Is Struggling to Respond to Asset Realignment Challenges
T-HEHS-00-91: Published: Apr 6, 2000. Publicly Released: Apr 6, 2000.
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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) management of health care assets that are operated by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), focusing on: (1) VHA's progress to date; (2) concerns regarding VHA's realignment process; and (3) the potential effects of VHA's actions on VA's capital budgeting process.
GAO noted that: (1) VHA has been unsuccessful over the past 13 months in its efforts to design a capital asset realignment process; (2) VHA's efforts have focused on discussions of who should lead such a process, how stakeholders should participate, and how decisions are to be made; (3) moreover, VHA estimates, as it did 8 months ago, that it could be several months before its process is operational; (4) GAO's assessment of VHA's process, as currently designed, raises concerns about whether the right people are involved at the right times and in the right ways; (5) specifically, senior managers at headquarters may not be proactively involved in a leadership role at key decision points; (6) in addition, stakeholders with vested interests appear to be involved in decisionmaking, rather than advisory, roles; (7) activities supporting key components, such as options development and evaluation, are not sufficiently rigorous; (8) as a result, VHA may not be able to produce within a reasonable timeframe capital asset plans that are in the best interest of veterans; (9) VHA's slow progress creates dilemmas for VA's capital budgeting process; (10) in the short term, VHA and VA's Capital Investment Board face the challenge of maintaining and improving capital assets without sufficient information about future asset needs to ensure cost-effective capital investment decisions; (11) by contrast, if funding for projects is delayed until capital asset plans are completed, the longer-term challenge will be how to successfully finance and implement capital realignment investments potentially totalling billions of dollars; and (12) these challenges could be ameliorated, in part, if VA effectively manages short-term investment risks and Congress provides alternative financing arrangements for future investments.
Jan 14, 2021
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Prescription Drugs:
Department of Veterans Affairs Paid About Half as Much as Medicare Part D for Selected Drugs in 2017GAO-21-111: Published: Dec 15, 2020. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021.
Dec 10, 2020
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VA Construction:
VA Should Enhance the Lessons-Learned Process for Its Real-Property Donation Pilot ProgramGAO-21-133: Published: Dec 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 10, 2020.
Dec 9, 2020
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VA Disability Benefits:
Process for Identifying Conditions Presumed to be Service Connected and Challenges in Processing Complex Gulf War Illness ClaimsGAO-21-253T: Published: Dec 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 9, 2020.
Nov 12, 2020
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Veterans Health Care:
Agency Efforts to Provide and Study Prosthetics for Small but Growing Female Veteran PopulationGAO-21-60: Published: Nov 12, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 12, 2020.
Sep 30, 2020
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VA Health Care:
Additional Steps Could Help Improve Community Care Budget EstimatesGAO-20-669: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020. -
Veterans Community Care Program:
Improvements Needed to Help Ensure Timely Access to CareGAO-20-721T: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
Sep 28, 2020
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Veterans Community Care Program:
Improvements Needed to Help Ensure Timely Access to CareGAO-20-643: Published: Sep 28, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 28, 2020.
Sep 21, 2020
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VA Disability Benefits:
VA Should Continue to Improve Access to Quality Disability Medical Exams for Veterans Living AbroadGAO-20-620: Published: Sep 21, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 21, 2020.
Sep 16, 2020
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VA Acquisition Management:
COVID-19 Response Strains Supply Chain While Modernization Delays ContinueGAO-20-716T: Published: Sep 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 16, 2020.
Sep 9, 2020
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Veteran Suicide:
VA Needs Accurate Data and Comprehensive Analyses to Better Understand On-Campus SuicidesGAO-20-664: Published: Sep 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 9, 2020.
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